


Love is a Choice

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Blood purity, Cruelty, Depression, F/M, Forced Marriage, Non-Graphic Violence, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:47:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24938527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: Disclaimer: All canon characters, plots, and situations from the Harry Potter series belong to JK Rowling. I am not profiting from this writing.Andromeda knew the path her life was to take. Sometimes, however, a wrench gets thrown in.
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/Lucius Malfoy
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12
Collections: Half-Blood Prince Drabble Elimination Challenge





	Love is a Choice

Andromeda Black knew who she was to marry for as long as she could remember. Lucius Malfoy was of correct birth, not too closely related to her, and he shared the same opinions as her family on bloody purity. The man was kind but also ruthless, but Andromeda wasn't worried, Black's could be ruthless as well.

Andromeda had known of Ted Tonks since the day they had both started at Hogwarts, but she hadn’t _truly_ known him until her seventh year. Ted was the opposite of Lucius. The man saw the good in all things, even her who long ago who mocked him, along with her sisters. 

Andromeda wished that she could be the person that Edward Tonks saw her as. 

They hadn’t planned on it ending up this way, at least Andromeda hadn’t, but if all that she could have with him was this short time, Andromeda would take it. No matter what happened, Andromeda wouldn't regret it. All the days of her life, she would carry these memories.

The memory of his skin on hers. The way he kissed her. The look on his face when Ted found something funny. The way he would sit with a quill resting on his lip, thinking about the world and what he wanted to do to make it better. . .Ted lived his life like he was a spark, a firework that you could carry with you all the days of your life.

The woman who got to be his wife would be a lucky one, but that woman would not be Andromeda. This affair would simply be a _hiccup_ in her life. It didn’t matter that fact felt like ripping out her very bloody heart and stomping on it. Blacks had to marry people like themselves; they weren’t allowed to marry Mudbloods, not even if the Mudblood was one of the kindest people you had ever met.

* * *

Andromeda was six weeks late when she finally realised that she was, in fact, pregnant. It took another six weeks to tell her mother. The woman slapped her across the face once the words were out of her mouth. The resounding crack filled her ears, and the stinging burn followed.

“How stupid are you, girl?” Druella hissed. “How bloody dense? Laying with a Mudblood? Allowing him to knock you up? And now you're too far along to get rid of it so your marriage is going to have to be pushed off another year! What will your father say? What will the family say?”

“I don’t know, mother,” Andromeda spat, toeing a small stone under her boot. She wanted to crush it, to put all of her anger and pain into destroying it, just like she had done to her own life. “Why not just blast me off the family tree and call it good?”

Her mother’s face turned white as a sheet. It was like death was standing in front of her.

“I would love to do such a thing. We could marry Narcissa off to the Malfoys. We even considered it when Slughorn told us you were running around with that _wretched_ boy.” She said, clutching her umbrella like she needed it to stand. “But the arrogant Malfoy boy only desires you. He will only marry _you._ So this bastard will be a mistake. It will be given away at birth and forgotten.”

“What if I don’t want to forget about _them_?” She growled, clutching at her skirt.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter, sweetheart. That was lost when you chose to spread your legs for something no better than a dog.”

“Ted is not a dog!” Andromeda snarled. “He’s a good man, and I…”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Druella snapped, staring her daughter down, blue eyes cruel. “Now go write him a letter. It will be easier if he’s willing to take it.”

Andromeda felt like there was a noose around her neck. Struggling against it was only going to make it tighter. Malfoys always got what they wanted, and this one wanted her.

* * *

Andromeda sometimes wished that she could go back in time and stop herself. Scream at the foolish girl that she had once been and keep her child close. Her little one who had been taken away before Andromeda had even gotten a good look at her face. She would have named her Nymphadora, but Merlin only knew what Ted called her. Maybe that was for the best. Either way, the loss of her felt like being tortured, like being twisted, gutted and then stitched back up all at the same time.

She'd had eight weeks to recover from birth and then Andromeda married Lucius. Eight short weeks after her mother had ripped the baby from her arms and tossed her at the midwife. Eight weeks after watching that midwife bathe the baby quickly and then took her from the room as if Hippogriffs were chasing after her. Andromeda had heard Ted outside the room, his quiet, _gentle_ voice telling the midwife how beautiful their daughter was.

Ted loved her. Ted loved their baby just as much as she did. Maybe even more because he was willing to fight for her. To stand up for her. To be the family that she needed.

“Just a hiccup, love,” her mother said rather matter of fact, as if she was simply talking about the weather. “Just like I told you it would be.”

“Go to bloody hell, mother.”

Sixteen months later, Andromeda Malfoy had another baby. A little boy with shocking blond hair, blue-grey eyes that reminded his mother of sea glass. He had a sister he would never get to meet. Draco was a _proper_ heir, to both the Malfoys and the Blacks.

Life was a series of choices, mistakes and successes, but none were _hiccups._ Andromeda would never truly love her husband, but they both loved Draco, but that didn’t mean that she did not wish for the life that could have been. 


End file.
